Let these women show you how to update your Indian handlooms

Handloom is not news, and neither are the women who swear by it, but the movement towards a conscious consumption of weaves and crafts has gained momentum over the last few years, attributable in part to growing offerings from different labels. As handloom vies for a more dominant and permanent position in contemporary wardrobes, women who wear the cloth continue to appreciate the tactility of these textiles for reasons evolved—poising their wardrobes between the handmade and the machined.

A new generation of women is slowly discovering the intrinsic value of these fabrics, and knowing a human hand made it lends an invaluable quality. The allure of tradition aside, this choice is also rooted in reality—they remain practical (a necessity in our tropical climate), age well and are incredibly comfortable. Here’s how India is wearing its weaves today.

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Noelle Kadar and Karuna Nundy, Delhi

Noelle Kadar, 31, product designer and VIP relations director, India Art Fair
Kadar likens her wardrobe choices to the adage ‘If we watch what we eat, we should also watch what we wear’. It is with this mindset that she identifies designers such as Arjun Saluja, who share the same principles. Not to say handloom is a perfect market—equitable wage is still a concern. In the meantime, however, she continues to champion those who make and create, if only for that change to occur.

Karuna Nundy, 39, advocate, Supreme Court of India; international lawyer
Her connection to handloom is not just from the familiar or emerging from the nationalist movement; Nundy recognises it as an incredibly labour-intensive and beautiful craft that needs to be preserved. Noting the power of a collective voice in this regard, the Supreme Court lawyer recollects last year’s public outcry to save the Handloom Reservation Bill. Given her profession’s dress code, she manages to play with black and white, all worn through saris and suits.

Image: Neville Sukhia

Mithu Sen and Simran Lal, Delhi

Mithu Sen, 45, artist
For this artist whose works evoke a sense of eroticism, distortion and beauty, her clothes are associated with special memories that hark back to her art-school days. As a student, Sen would often wear her mom’s rejected old saris with T-shirts, creating, in the process, her own gypsy style. Besides a certain haunting quality, in the lines of a handloom fabric she also sees a promise of sensuality. As a second skin, it is at once “exotic, erotic, sensual and seductive,” and she imagines someone making it by hand as an emotionally human and organic process.

Simran Lal, 44, CEO, Good Earth
Lal, who through her Good Earth stores has managed to make an impression in many an Indian home, is also an avid textile collector. You’ll see her in an old khadi Afghani tunic or ikat trousers with whites from Good Earth. “I feel the craftsmen’s hopes, life and joy seep through all these fabrics—and I get a certain joy from that. The only way for these industries to flourish is if the next generations take it on and let craftsmen set the price.”

Image: Neville Sukhia

Aditi Singh Reddy and Preeti Verma, Mumbai

Aditi Singh Reddy, 39, artist
Singh likes to reflect on the lineage of time, place and intention behind the garments she wears. “What’s important to me is tracing the geography of thread; its beginning in the hand and the region where it’s made.” Her own history adds life and context to pieces, like the ones from Gaba (Aneeth Arora’s first label) and Tilla, as does her collection of vintage saris and shawls passed down and treasured from one generation to the next.

Preeti Verma, 33, creative director, Runaway Bicycle
In an admission many would find hard to digest, Verma reveals the last pair of jeans she bought was a decade ago. “Ninety-five per cent of my wardrobe is handwoven. Why buy machine-made when you have another, better option?” It is this reasoning that leads her to develop exclusive woven textiles for her label. Starting from scratch and putting your own stamp on tradition—what could be more luxurious?

Image: Neville Sukhia

Priya Jhaveri and Prarthna Singh, Mumbai

Priya Jhaveri, 39, director, Jhaveri Contemporary
With roots in Patan, famed for its Patola weave, Jhaveri recalls how, as a teenager, she was made to wear Gujarati abhas while friends donned contemporary outfits. That air of discomfort is gone. Now, she finds herself in awe, looking at textiles as individual works of art, not unlike the pieces that hang in her Mumbai gallery. “My relationship with each is a very real and sincere engagement.”

Prarthna Singh, 32, photographer
The fact that her mother used to source for Cottage Industries didn’t necessarily translate into an early wardrobe full of treasures for Singh, though she says she has evolved to appreciate the value of one versus many. Luckily, her thinking aligns with that of designers whose clothes she has photographed, like Sanjay Garg, Ruchika Sachdeva of Bodice and Rashmi Varma.

Image: Neville Sukhia

Shalini Bhupal and Suhani Pittie, Hyderabad

Shalini Bhupal, 52, executive director, Taj GVK Hotels & Resorts
Bhupal’s wardrobe staples include ikat skirts, brocade trousers and kalamkari jackets, all commissioned to fi t her statuesque frame. Abraham & Thakore are her go-to for menswear-inspired looks, while her daughter’s label Shriya Som is the perfect resource for custom evening wear, like the trailing gold Benares jacket she wears to the shoot. Her family’s extensive collection of textiles includes Gadwal saris but Bhupal’s favourite piece is a veil from Benares—recently worn to a wedding with a simple off-white kurta. As it should be.

Suhani Pittie, 34, CEO and creative director, Suhani Pittie
Pittie believes in finding luxury in the everyday. She refuses to let her family’s rich collection of textiles gather dust in trunks, choosing to incorporate them with ease into her daily wardrobe. You’ll spot her in Banjara Hills with an old Paithani sari slung over her shoulders as a shawl, or at a cocktail event wearing a jacket made from a 100-year-old rare British blue Tanchoi, complete with real silver heart motifs—all accessorised with her self-designed, avant garde jewellery, of course. “Why let these beautiful pieces disintegrate in old trunks? I believe they have a personality of their own and are also mortal.”

Image: Neville Sukhia

Kanika Subbiah and Sara Vetteth, Chennai

Kanika Subbiah, 45, founder, WeddingWishList.com
Cotton saris and linen textiles make up the majority of Subbiah’s wardrobe, one that changed upon her return to India a decade ago. “Only when I came back did I start appreciating textiles to this extent,” she says. Subbiah has since made her own rules—including breaking convention and wearing cotton saris to weddings. As a busy entrepreneur she opts for practicality and comfort in well-tailored separates, including those from Tilla and Shades of India.

Sara Vetteth, 41, founder, Rainbowfish Studio
Between co-existing with a lively dog, teaching hundreds of kids the visual arts, and living in the tropical climes of Chennai, Vetteth needs clothes that are easy to care for. More often than not, she ends up pairing her handwoven tops from Neeru Kumar or Abraham & Thakore with jeans or chinos. Drawn to the handmade, she pleads guilty to hoarding: “Stacks of fabrics that I buy under the impression I will make stuff… that’s yet to happen!”